Re:Boeing 737 MAX crash and the rejection of ridiculous data
by aidenn0 on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @11:54PM
(#19631030)
If the leaked information so far is at all reliable, it seems that the MCAS system was obviously inappropriate for FAA certification; a single AOA sensor cannot be used as a critical component of a DIL B system, full stop.
The suggested change makes the system not actively crash the airplane under ordinary situations, but does not account for the increased load on a pilot due to the need to manually trim down under the conditions that a properly operating MCAS would be needed. If the MCAS is necessary to prevent crashes due to pilot overload, then this 10 character change is insufficient.
Sure the suggested change makes the cure no longer be worse than the disease, but doesn't address the fact that the cure was needed in the first place.
Another way of putting it is that the crash could have also been avoided by using this pseudo code instead of what is suggested:
IF FALSE THEN RUNAWAY_TRIM();
but the MCAS system wasn't added by Boeing because they wanted to spend more money on the aircraft, so it (like the fix suggested in the article) seems likely to be insufficient from the point of view of passenger safety.
The suggested change makes the system not actively crash the airplane under ordinary situations, but does not account for the increased load on a pilot due to the need to manually trim down under the conditions that a properly operating MCAS would be needed. If the MCAS is necessary to prevent crashes due to pilot overload, then this 10 character change is insufficient.
Sure the suggested change makes the cure no longer be worse than the disease, but doesn't address the fact that the cure was needed in the first place.
Another way of putting it is that the crash could have also been avoided by using this pseudo code instead of what is suggested:
but the MCAS system wasn't added by Boeing because they wanted to spend more money on the aircraft, so it (like the fix suggested in the article) seems likely to be insufficient from the point of view of passenger safety.